Oliver KavenNetgear RangeMax Next Wireless Router Gigabit Edition WNR854TThe Netgear WNR854T is the fastest of the draft-n routers so far&#151;and it has some great extras, such as a gigabit switch&#151;but it still disappoints at long range.

Tremendous speed at close range, great design, good interface, gigabit switch.

Cons

Unsatisfactory performance at long range.

Bottom Line

The Netgear WNR854T is the fastest of the draft-n routers so farand it has some great extras, such as a gigabit switchbut it still disappoints at long range.

Solid Features

This router offers all the features you'd expect of a networking product in this class. The WNR854T includes port forwarding and triggering, VPN pass-through for IPSec, L2TP, and PPTP connections, as well as dynamic DNS. Service blocking and UPnP are also part of the feature set.

On the wireless side, the WNR854T offers WEP, WPA, WPA PSK, and WPA2-PSK. But the WPNT834 lacks effective parental controls, though it has adequate security features. You can manually enter sites or services that you want to block and set the times and days of the week when you want the blocking to be active. Setting up parental controls this way is tedious and ineffective.

I really like Netgear's attitude toward firmware upgrades. The option to check for updates upon logon to the router is a great idea. You can easily enable this option by selecting the "Check for New Version Upon Log-in" checkbox in the "Router Upgrade" screen. If selected, you're reminded at every logon to check if there is a firmware upgrade available. This is a nice touch, especially with this sort of prestandard product, which typically requires frequent firmware upgrades to reach its full performance potential.Continue reading